If you ever watched Family Feud during Richard Dawson's run, then you would likely know about his tradition of kissing the show's female contestants on the lips, and sometimes on the cheek.
What you likely didn't know is that those contestants had to undergo herpes testing, according to the newly released book, Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars by Kliph Nesteroff. A report from the Pacific Daily News shared that both male and female contestants had to “undergo a mouth test with a magnifying glass from medical distaff.”
Richard hosted the show from 1976 to 1985, and then again from 1994 to 1995. After a while, some viewers raised concerns about his kissing tradition. A letter that was published in the Philadelphia Daily News accused the host of “promiscuous kissing” and called the risk of diseases that could occur “too loathsome to recount.”
“When you watch clips of that era of Family Feud on YouTube and you see Richard Dawson kissing the ladies, a lot of the comments in the comment section will say things like, ‘Well, it was a different time. That's the way men were back then. It was a different time. People weren't so sensitive,’” Kliph explained in an interview with People. “And here, again, is evidence to the contrary that all kinds of people were complaining.”
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In a 2010 interview with the Archive of American Television, the late host shared why he started his unconventional kissing tradition. Within the first weeks of the show, he came across a female contestant who was visibly nervous and unable to name a green vegetable, so he acted.
"I said, 'I'm gonna do something that my mom would do to me whenever I had a problem of any kind. … And I kissed her on the cheek, and I said, 'That's for luck.' And she said, 'Asparagus,'" he explained. "They went on to win."
He went on to share that after about a month, executives of the show did try to put an end to the kissing. They claimed that sponsors didn't think it was the best idea to be kissing women without knowing their marital status or getting their permission first.
Richard decided to get the input of viewers. He had people take a poll, and the results came back as 14,600 to 704 in favor of kissing, according to the book Hogan's Heroes: The Unofficial Company. It also stated that contestants filled out a questionnaire prior to appearing on the show that asked if they were comfortable being kissed.
Though Richard's kissing was looked down upon by some, it didn't get him in trouble all the time. It actually led him to finding and marrying his second wife, Gretchen Johnson.
"I just knew there was something about this young lady and myself," he said. They later had a daughter in 1990 and married the next year. When he returned to the show in 1994, he made it clear that his kissing tradition had ended. "I met someone on the show about 13 years ago and we're married, and now we have a little daughter. Her name is Shannon Nicole," he said. "And I can't kiss any of the ladies because I promised my daughter I would only kiss Mom."
